


Crayfish and Auras

by Osiris_Brackhaus (Rynthjan)



Series: Malachite Years [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M, Terra - Freeform, phoenix empire, pseudoreligious technobabel, teenage sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-10
Updated: 2012-06-10
Packaged: 2017-11-07 10:31:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/430073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rynthjan/pseuds/Osiris_Brackhaus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While spending his ‘annum nobilis’ on Earth under the tutelage of Archbishop Stephanus, Leesha learns something new…</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crayfish and Auras

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the year 5016 of the Phoenix Empire timeline.

Brilliant, warm summer sunlight cast gleaming rays through the thick cover of foliage, leaving the forest around in deep shadows. A river meandered through the forest, cutting a brightly lit, winding path through the undergrowth. The sunlight glittered on the waves where the shallow water bounced over the rocks and pebbles the river had polished since ages. Occasionally, a dragonfly buzzed by, their wings adding a rainbow sparkle to the warm summer air.

It was late August in the Monastery of Aquila, summer residence to the Archbishop of Terra. And like anywhere on Earth, nothing dared to disturb the pristine pastorality of the surrounding forest.

Well, nothing but two boys wading down the river, laughing and shouting at each other.

They were wearing the simple blue tunics of Aroona novices, and apparently were out to gather crayfish in the muddy banks. Both had cloth satchels attached to the rope belts of their tunics, dunking them into the water every now and then to keep their catch fresh.

One of them, a handsome boy of maybe fifteen years, waded through the mud like he had never done anything else. He was tanned and sinewy, his hands muddy up to his elbows, his brown hair cropped down to practical, short curls. He had a friendly, open face, with eyes that at any given time were either laughing or flirting.

The other one was the same age, but different in almost every other regard. Tall and slender, he had a skin white like porcelain, as if only recently having seen the sun for the first time. His hair was long and dark, falling in a thick black braid down to his waist. His hands were neatly clean, and his classic, finely cut features seemed a little out-of-place in the rural setting. While he moved with the sure-footed grace of a trained fighter, he also walked more cautiously than the other boy, scanning the shadows of the forest as if searching for hidden predators.

“Goodness, Leesha!” the brown-haired boy exclaimed with mock exasperation. “You’re not on Serin anymore. Relax!”

“I know where we are.” Kicking water in the general direction of his fellow novice, Leesha none the less kept his watchful stance. “No need to remind me.”

“Well, you’re not gonna catch anything standing there with your nose up in the air.” Chuckling, the other novice took a handful of mud and flung it in Leesha’s direction, who almost absent-mindedly dodged the load. “And stop being such a spoilsport!”

Leesha blinked in confusion at the accusation.

“What did I do wrong this time?” he asked, the tone in his voice showing genuine curiosity. As his companion only rolled his eyes, he added: “You know I haven’t had much dealings with… people outside my family. I am here to learn, Drew.”

“Well, for starters, when I kick mud at you, you’re supposed to kick back. You yell and insult me and try to get me as dirty as possible. Not just stand there all cool like some boring noble.”

“But I am a Noble…”

Instead of an answer, Drew rolled his eyes, grinning. Then he knelt down and got another handful of mud up from the ground.

“Yeah. But you’re not supposed to be boring.”

This time, when Drew hurled the mud at Leesha, it hit him square in the chest, adding a nice array of olive freckles to Leesha’s otherwise immaculate skin.

“You bloody bastard!” Leesha exclaimed in his best ‘haughty Habichtswald’ accent, only partially playacting. “How dare you, you filthy commoner!”

Originally from Serin, a planet with extremely hostile flora and fauna, playing outside had never been even a possibility. Then, when his mother relocated their entire estate to P2 right after the coronation of Emperor Hyperion to serve as head of his secret service, he hadn’t seem much of nature, either. There were more ballrooms and illegal cage-fighting bars in Imperial City than trees, anyway.

But now Leesha had started his ‘annum nobilis’, his ‘year of nobility’, wherein young nobles all across the empire joined a different noble family for a year and a day to learn their customs. It was meant to be a time to forge new friendships and alliances, or cement old feuds and prejudices, and to give young nobles a chance to come to their own outside the sometimes stifling grip of their immediate family.

Joining the church during that time usually was out of the question; as such a decision was never taken temporarily. But in Leesha’s case, there was the loophole of the Archbishop Stephanus of Terra having been a noble before he took up the cloth himself, and a very close friend of both Leesha’s mother and the Emperor.  
So, officially Leesha was spending his annum nobilis with his uncle Steven of House Dracon. Which effectively meant that he was spending his year with His Holiness Father Stephanus of Temple Aroona, the Archbishop of Terra, as one of his hand- picked novices.

Consequentially, that also entailed that he was sent out to gather crayfish for dinner in the muddy banks of some nameless river with some fellow novice. No politics, no bodyguards, no expectations to him other than arriving in time to cook dinner from what he had caught. Not that anyone would have cared much if he hadn’t caught anything – life at the monastery was peaceful to the point of boredom, food was plenty, all around in the forests and orchards and on the fields of the surrounding villages.

Compared to the aggressively omnivorous nature on Serin, the forest on Earth was disconcertingly peaceful. Leesha and Drew had been out here for almost two hours by now, and the most dangerous animal they had encountered had been a swarm of mosquitoes, playing in the sunlight over the riverbanks. There hadn’t even been any poisonous plants to watch out for, even though Leesha had tried hard to make Drew point out at least one.

All they had to do was walk down the river and look for muddy shallows. There Drew would dig around in the mud until he pulled out one small crustacean after another, laughing at Leesha’s horrified expression. It had taken the young noble a small eternity to accept that Drew wasn’t suicidal, but that there actually couldn’t be anything harmful lurking in the water, and that Drew was just acting perfectly normal for this place.

It was Leesha’s annum nobilis, after all, and he had come here with the firm intention of learning how people outside his family and House Dracon lived.  
And apparently, that included walking around the forest without heavy armour and weaponry, picking up wild animals with bare hands and occasionally hurling mud and insults at each other.

“Didn’t think I would dare that, did you, professional pervert?” Drew shouted right back at Leesha, adding another hefty load of river mud to his insult.

Slightly taken aback at the fact that ‘professional pervert’ actually constituted an insult, Leesha knelt down and tried to find some mud of his own. But even though the river was still no more than knee-deep where he was standing, it was running too swift to have anything at the bed other than river pebbles. And as throwing stones at each other would surely defy the playful character of the situation, Leesha decided for another approach.  
Using his well-trained combat reflexes, he charged through the river right at Drew, slamming into the other novice and shoving both of them into the muddy shallows at the riverbank.

“Ha!” he exclaimed, still only half-mocking, “I bet you didn’t see this one coming!”

First, Drew’s expression was plain surprise, then he broke into wild laughter. Before Leesha could ask what he had done this time, Drew had grabbed a hand of mud on both sides each, slamming them against Leesha’s neck in a full broadside.  
Equally surprised and just a little grossed out, Leesha only growled furiously, returning the attack in like as he now finally had sufficient ammunition as well.

For a good while, both boys fought and giggled in the mud, until they were so dirty that the sand was crunching between their teeth.

Catching their breath again, they sat next to each other, smiling and spitting.

“You really think this is okay?” Leesha finally asked, doubtfully looking at his sludge-covered fingers. “No parasites? What about bacteria?”

“It’s fine, Leesha, relax.”

Carefully, Drew removed his bag of crayfish from his belt, checking on the little critters before he cautiously washed off the mud. Wordlessly, he gestured Leesha to hand his bag over as well, cleaning his catch with equal care.

“We really shouldn’t bring them home dirty.” Drew said with a wide grin. “Steven might just cook’em like this.”

The Archbishop actually did a lot of the cooking himself, whenever his other duties allowed. And he was truly a great chef, just not always entirely concentrated on the details. Like snails on the salad or mud on the crayfish.

“He actually might.” Still looking at his mud-covered hands, Leesha silently wondered despite better knowledge why where was no burning sensation of amoebae trying to eat his skin. If he had done this back home on Serin, they’d both be dead within an hour. With a visible effort, he rose, starting to clean himself. “We shouldn’t show up all grimy, either.”

“Right you are,” Drew replied. He carefully secured the two bags under a stone on the river bank, then took two giant steps back into the river and dropped into the water face-first. A heartbeat later, he reappeared, laughing and coughing and mostly clean again. Even his tunic was looking blue again for the most part.

“Are you alright?” Leesha asked, part worried, part envious about the carefree attitude that came so naturally to Drew.

“Water up my nose,” Drew replied slightly choked, but then dropped back into the water again. Laughing, he returned, shaking himself like a young dog, water flying everywhere.

Joining in the laughter, Leesha slipped his mud-crusted tunic over his head and waded back into the deeper water as well. This late in summer, the water was pleasantly warm, barely cooler than the air, and crystal clear. With swift, efficient motions, Leesha had himself mostly cleaned and his tunic soaked. Sitting down on a flat stone in the river, he loosened his braid and allowed his hair to flow along with the stream, hoping this would get most of the sand out of it.

Leaning back until the back of his head was touching the water, Leesha revelled in the sensation of nature all around him. Sunlight and trees on both sides above him, the water of the river all around him, gently tugging his hair along like kelp in the tide, all of nature perfectly at ease with his presence here. With sudden clarity, Leesha realized what people meant when they talked about the ‘cradle of humanity’.  
It was beautiful, peaceful and as far removed from reality as possible.

When he sat up again, Leesha realized that Drew was staring at him, his expression frozen.

“Drew? What’s wrong?”

“You… hurm.” Laughing insecurely, Drew raked a hand trough his hair, making streaks of lightly muddy water running down the side of his face and neck. “You’re naked.”

“Yes…?”

It took Leesha a long moment to realize that Drew most probably was embarrassed.

Growing up a Dracon meant that, even in the nicest of households, you were exposed to naked people and sexuality all your life. Leesha rationally was well aware that his concept of shame was very different from that of almost any other citizen of the Empire. But this was the first time he stumbled across the difference personally, and he was slightly at a loss on how to deal with it.

“You… want me to dress again?” he asked, not really sure how the short tunic could possibly make any difference.

“No, it’s okay.” Drew replied with a shrug and an ever so slightly forced smile. “You’re very beautiful.”

This time, it was Leesha who laughed insecurely. Growing up with a mother who was renowned as the most beautiful woman of all the empire and her equally gorgeous husband and their dazzling array of pets left some scars, after all.

“You’re kidding. I’m skinny. And bland.”

“I think you are beautiful.”

This time, Drew’s remark had enough conviction to make Leesha believe he meant it, and the young Dracon was happy he managed not to blush at the compliment.

“Thank you. That is very kind.”

Still a little at a loss on what to say, Leesha gathered up his hair that was still drifting in the river behind him and started to wring out the water. He loved his hair, and wanted to let it grow as long as possible. But outside the comforts of the civilized world, it was proving a real effort to take care of it. If he didn’t find some other solution, he would have to cut it short before going to Kalidor, Leesha realized with an inward sigh.

So Leesha wrung out his hair with mixed emotions. Looking up, he found Drew still standing there, staring at him.

“What is it?” he asked the other novice, trying to sound as non-threatening as possible.

Instead of an answer, Drew shrugged again. “We probably should be going.”

It was obvious to Leesha that there was something Drew wasn’t telling him. Yet, he wasn’t too sure about what it was. Drew had been a field slave here on Terra before he had become a novice of the Temple. He didn’t always make sense, in Leesha’s eyes.

Slowly, Leesha rose from the stone he had been sitting on, gathering up his tunic. Then he turned around to fetch his bag of crayfish that was still lying neatly secured on the riverbank. Passing Drew on the way there, he noticed the other boy making a half-hearted effort to hide a significant bulge between his legs under his tunic.

“You really shouldn’t do that,” Leesha playfully admonished. “As Aroona novices, we always should be proud of our bodies, and show our excitement like the compliment it is.”

“Smartass.” Drew quipped in return, now making an effort not to hide his erection. “So what. You’re pretty, I am horny. I should get over it, right?”

“That’s roughly how we’re supposed to see things here.” Looking at Drew for a moment, Leesha scratched his neck, then put down the wet satchel again. “But I think Father Steven didn’t mean us to ignore our feelings. Just not to be embarrassed by them.”

Doubtfully, Drew cocked an eyebrow at Leesha. “And what is that supposed to mean, now?”

Smiling, Leesha walked over to the other novice, stopping only half a hand away from him. At least, this was a field where his Dracon upbringing put him at a clear advantage.

“That’s supposed to mean that if I get you horny, we should try and get it on.”

Not waiting for any reaction from Drew, Leesha swiftly put a hand onto Drew’s neck, pulling the other boy into a close kiss. At the same time, Leesha’s free hand sneaked up Drew’s wet thigh, under his tunic, until he could cup his balls, warm and pulsing with desire.

“You mean – here? Now?” Drew seemed to be genuinely surprised, but far from objecting. He was an Aroona novice, after all, his body instinctively pressing against Leesha’s. “Just the two of us?”

“What’s wrong with that?” Leesha asked; smiling as Drew’s reply somehow got lost in a soundless moan. “We’re supposed to act with neither shame nor compulsion. None of which I can detect here…”

“Oh, you are…” Drew’s answer once again faltered, but then he pushed Leesha away, gently but with resolve. “Damn, are all Dracon that naughty?”

“No, most of us are merely perverts,” Leesha replied cockily, wriggling his eyebrows. “And you are still way too dressed, my dear.”

Without hesitation, Drew slipped his dripping wet tunic over his head, flinging the soaked cloth in the rough direction of their satchels.

“Better now?”

“Much better.”

Once again, Leesha pulled Drew close to him, their bodies leaning against each other, their cocks hard and full of anticipation.

For a while, they just stood there, kissing and touching each other, exploring their bodies, as if their skins could tell them things their respective owner would not. They were so lost in each other’s touch that they only noticed the approaching man in the very last moment.

“Oh here you are.” Smiling widely, Archbishop Stephanus of Terra waded trough the river towards them. “I had a feeling I should come looking.”

While Drew couldn’t suppress a vaguely guilty look, Leesha only laughed light-heartedly. His uncle was many things, but most importantly, he was guileless to a fault. Father Stephen couldn’t lie to save a life, and he looked absolutely happy to see the two boys fondling each other. So from Leesha’s point of view, everything was perfectly fine.

Father Stephen walked up the last steps to them, smiling. Like every Aroona, he wore blue clothes of simple cuts and sturdy, natural fabrics. Right now, that was a pair of wide trousers that he had rolled up to above his knees, and an unbuttoned shirt that he was wearing loosely like a jacket over his bare chest. His whole body basically oozed with good health, and even though he was well above forty years by now, he didn’t look as if he were out of his twenties yet.  
There was a special magic around Aroona priests that seemed to keep them from aging, and Father Stephen could claim the remarkable position of being the second oldest Aroona priest ever, right after the sect’s founder, Father Rasputin of Serin.

“We were practicing…” Drew explained lamely, almost sounding as if he wondered himself why he was trying to find an excuse at all. “We lost time.”

“Really?” Father Stephen chuckled deeply, an appreciative twinkle in his chocolate brown eyes. “Looks to me like you were fucking.”

Drew blinked at that blunt assessment, but Leesha laughed out loud.

“You’re right in time to join us, Father.” Leesha suggested. “If you want to.”

“No, not this time, I think,” Stephen replied, still smiling and eyeing the boys as if looking for a clue to a riddle he had been pondering all the way here. “But don’t let me keep you from anything, either. Just go on.”

“Is this going to be, like, a private lesson?” Drew asked, biting his lower lip in a curious mix of embarrassment and excitement.

“A lesson?” Father Stephen genuinely looked as if that thought hadn’t crossed his mind yet. “Oh, why, what a smart idea! Sure!”

While Leesha wasn’t too sure about that offer, Drew seemed to be thrilled at the prospect. Unsurprisingly so, as Drew was something like the teacher’s pet in their current group of novices. He grasped the spiritual ideas they were bombarded with with enviable ease. Leesha, on the other hand, was a little too rational. And while he was perfectly committed and could remember everything almost photographically, the subtle and sometimes very flowery explanations of their teachers most of the times just went over his head.

“Can’t I just jerk him off?” Leesha suggested, even managing not to sound petulant. “I mean, if we put in another lesson, now, we’ll be late for dinner, won’t we?”

“Ah, never mind dinner,” Stephen replied with a dismissing gesture. “They’ll start without us if they’re hungry, and if not – who gives a damn?”

On the one hand, Leesha found it hard to argue with Father Stephen’s proprietary logic. On the other hand, having grown up a very structured household, this free-wheeling attitude was just a little unsettling. But maybe this was exactly one of the things he was supposed to learn during his time here – that there were other ways of doing things right.

“So, Father – what’s it to be then?” Leesha asked, still struggling inwardly at calling Steven ‘Father’, even though he had known the man as his dear uncle for all his life. “Do I just suck him off or do you have special… directions?”

“I only have directions for those who need them.” Stephen replied cryptically, yet didn’t elaborate on the subject. “Come on; let’s go over here, that’s much nicer and warmer than right here in the water.”

Gesturing the two boys to follow him, the Archbishop of Terra waded a little upstream of a small bank of pebbles, gleaming white and grey, lying warm and welcoming in the sunlight.

“Yep,” he confirmed as if having been looking for a spot with very special properties, “this will do very nicely.”

Turning around to the two naked boys trailing him, he waved Drew over and gestured to the ground.

“Come here, Drew, and lie down. It should be comfortable enough here in the sun.”

Without hesitation, the young novice did as he was told. After having lived a few weeks among the Aroona now, he was very sure that whatever Father Stephen was going to do, it definitely would at least be very interesting. So he settled down on the pebbles, gathering a pile of them under his head, making sure he was displaying his lean body to great effect.

“Like this?” he asked, trying not to sound too cocky and failing miserably.

“You’ll do nicely.” Stephen replied with an indulgent smirk. “But you’re already ahead of the other novices, dear, so this lesson will be for Leesha, primarily. You’re just required to hold still, relax and enjoy. Oh, and you’re not supposed to cum, unless I tell you. You think you can manage?”

Knowing quite well that he was rather excitable and still of an age where sex was measured in seconds rather than minutes, Drew forced himself to a courageous, if not entirely serious smile. “I’ll do my very best, Father.”

“That’s all I could ask of you.” Now turning around to his nephew, Stephen smiled as he found Leesha standing a little off, coolly observing as if not entirely part of the scene. “Now come on, son. This is nothing you can learn with your head.”

With a small gesture, Stephen motioned Leesha to kneel down next to Drew, while Stephen himself settled down onto the pebbles on the other side of the novice.

“Alright. Drew, just relax, and try to attune yourself to Leesha. Don’t do anything; just try to make it as easy for him to read you as you can, will you?”

“Yes, Father,” Drew replied, closing his eyes.

“And you, Leesha, look at him.” Allowing himself a slightly lingering look, Father Stephen looked down on the novice in front of him as well. “He’s beautiful, isn’t he?”

“Yes.” Leesha replied, instantly aware of Stephen’s slightly mocking challenge. Apparently, this wasn’t entirely the answer Father Stephen had been expecting, and he was clearly convinced Leesha could do much better.

With an inward sigh, Leesha reminded himself that his uncle wasn’t ‘merely’ the Archbishop of Terra, but also Terra Prime, the planetary head of the psions’ guild. Father Stephen was one of the rare humans who were both psion and theurge, able of supernatural feats of both mind and faith. Actually, he was the only human with such dual gifts Leesha had ever heard of.  
Funny enough, Stephen wasn’t an overly powerful psychic. At least, not officially so. Officially, he was an empath barely strong enough so the guild would accept him as a prime, and sufficiently high up the church hierarchy that the church would accept him in any position of authority on their central planet. The real reason was just a little weird and much more complicated.

“So?” Stephen asked again, evoking the clear image in Leesha that he expected an honest and detailed answer this time.

“He’s pretty,” Leesha replied after only a moment’s hesitation. “But not really beautiful.”

“Not?” Stephen replied with slightly mocking surprise, while Drew was still lying on the ground between them, perfectly relaxed, faintly smiling and utterly unconcerned about Leesha’s opinion about his looks. “Why?”

“He’s… ordinary. Unremarkable. I wouldn’t look at him twice if I met him elsewhere.”

“So, beauty has to be unique?”

A little insecure as to where his uncle was leading, Leesha hesitated a moment before he answered.

“No. But extraordinary.”

“So if there are only beautiful things of one kind, none of them are beautiful?”

Again, Leesha was sure Stephen was chuckling inwardly. Apparently, his uncle had had similar discussions already with quite a lot of his novices.

But of course his uncle was right, Leesha had to agree. The lack of lesser comparables didn’t make things uglier or more beautiful. It only changed his own perception of them.

“You’re trying to tell me that I shouldn’t judge by comparison, is that what you’re trying to say?”

This time, a wide smile grew on Stephen’s face, making him look even younger.

“Look at him,“ his uncle ordered softly. “Look again, and this time, look with your heart.”

“But with nothing to compare, how am I to know what is beautiful and what not?”

As soon as the words were out, Leesha knew he sounded stupid. Luckily, Stephen didn’t reply immediately. He only sat there, smiling encouragingly, biting his lower lip as if trying not to grin with pride like an idiot father. He looked rather sweet, Leesha had to admit.

“So… the way you smile at me tells me I already know the answer, right?”

This time, Stephen nodded, beaming with anticipation.

“I… I really don’t understand what you mean when you tell me to look with my heart.” Leesha resigned with a tiny, heavy sigh. Since he had come to Earth, it had always ended like this – his mind being too rational, too trained, too analytical to grasp the things the other novices around him apparently took in as naturally as breathing. “I am sorry.”

“Shhh…” Stephen replied instantly, genuinely caring. “Never say you’re sorry when there’s nothing you have done wrong, honey.”

“But I – “

“Shush. You’re doing fine.”

Oddly enough, Leesha believed Stephen, relaxing again.

This was the true talent of his uncle, the true reason why he was heading the psions’ guild here. Stephen was what Leesha’s mother called a savant, or a peak talent. His abilities were severely limited in many ways, but extraordinarily developed in others. So while intentionally, Stephen couldn’t do more than read other people’s emotions and convey his own over short distances, it was another matter entirely what he did unintentionally. From what Leesha had overheard in discussions of his mother as head of the Imperial Intelligence Service, Uncle Stephen was constantly broadcasting a very soft, very subtle sentiment of trust and understanding all around him. It was a manipulation that a trained mind could easily identify. But amazingly enough, so far no human psion had found any means of blocking that signal. Together with the fact that Stephen’s signal was detectable all across the empire and way beyond, it made Stephen simultaneously one of the weakest and one of the strongest psions of this generation.  
Leesha still remembered an overheard conversation between his mother and Master Ulysses, Serin Prime and presumed head of the psions’ guild. Usually, Master Ulysses was best described as the most monolithically nonchalant personality Leesha knew. And yet even Master Ulysses hadn’t been able to suppress a slightly catty note in his voice when talking about Father Stephen’s unsurpassed, uncontrollable and ultimately useless powers.

So when Stephen reached out, gesturing Leesha to give him his hand, the young noble hesitated for a moment. Not that Stephen would ever do anything less than kind to him – but his abilities were already noticeably stronger when he was close by, and much more persuasive when touching him.  
On the other hand, exactly this was the reason why he could oversee the work of the psions’ guild while merely a weak empath himself – under his guidance, weaker psions could join their abilities to great effect, with an ease that was considered impossible anywhere else, in sum effectively doing work that should be several leagues over their heads under any other circumstance. Maybe, Leesha thought, that was what he needed right now.

So he reached out as well, taking the hand his uncle offered him.

When they touched, nothing immediately noticeable happened, not that Leesha would have expected it to. Only step by step, breath by breath, Leesha felt his worries slip away, his overly active mind coming to rest in a state of peaceful, attentive silence.

“Better now?” Father Stephen asked, not actually expecting Leesha to reply as he already knew the answer. “Very good.”

For a long moment, they didn’t do anything but holding hands across Drew’s bare chest, listening to the sounds of the river and the forest. Back home on Serin, nature had always been the enemy, something distinctly separate from Leesha, something to be kept away at all cost. Living on P2 hadn’t changed that sentiment much, as Leesha’s court life had basically happened indoors all the time.  
But here, in the pristine forest of Earth, in the middle of all the dirty and crawling and flying abundance, Leesha couldn’t feel anything but at peace. More so with Uncle Stephen holding his hand.

For the first time in his life, everything around Leesha felt right.

Every tree was exactly where it was supposed to be, every bird and bee and little crawling thing that scuttled across the pebbles right next to Leesha. And most fascinatingly, this feeling of ‘rightness’ included himself. Nature here accepted him as a part of itself. Everything was as God had planned, and it was breathtakingly beautiful.

“Are you sending me this?” Leesha asked incredulously, while he marvelled at the forest around him. “Where does this come from?”

“God is as much a part of you as you are part of him.” Stephen replied, and this time, it kind of made sense to Leesha. “You always knew. You just didn’t believe you did.”

“That sounds… just a tad blasphemic.” Leesha replied; still shy to accept what he already knew to be true. “I’m not that special.”

“You think? Listen, my son, I am much older than I look. I have met more people than I can count, and I still haven’t found a single one who wasn’t special. Or important, for that matter.”

For a moment, Leesha arched a questioning eyebrow at his uncle’s claim. But then, Stephen wasn’t talking about importance in terms of Imperial politics, or special as in ‘the most powerful psion’. He was talking from a much broader point of view, and in a much larger grid of reference. He was seeing things with God’s eye. With his heart.

“I always knew you had it in you,” Stephen remarked softly, gently squeezing Leesha’s hand. “Now look down. Look at Drew.”

Leesha did as he was told, and for a heartbeat was disappointed. The handsome boy hadn’t changed, at least not as obviously as he had hoped. And yet, something was different. Leesha had changed.

“Beautiful, isn’t he?” Stephen repeated his question, and this time, Leesha knew what he meant.

Drew still wasn’t a beauty like Leesha knew them from his mother’s court. But he was young and radiantly healthy, perfectly at peace with himself and the situation around him. He was happy, and grateful, and everything in his world was as it was supposed to be. He was beautiful.

“Yes,” Leesha replied, smiling. “I see what you mean. He IS beautiful. And quite horny.”

At this matter-of-fact remark, Father Stephen laughed softly, as if trying not to break the fragile magic of the moment.

“Oh my, indeed he is.” For a moment, Stephen seemed distracted, as if remembering something very close to his heart and rather sexy. But he caught himself soon enough, chuckling. “We really should be doing something about this. Look at him again. Take your time.”

Even though Leesha wasn’t entirely sure what he was supposed to be looking for, he did as his uncle told him.

Drew was lying there with closed eyes; almost dry again from the late afternoon sun, only here and there a single drop of water still glistening on his skin. There was still the occasional smudge of half-dried mud on his flanks, his hands, his legs. His skin was well tanned except for his hips and thighs, where he had rarely taken off his breeches before he had taken up the cloth. His cock was still hard and pumping with need, not huge, just normal.

His penned-up desire was the only thing that felt not perfectly right about him. Uncle Stephen was right; they had to do something about it.

“What does he long for?” Stephen asked softly, right on cue as if he had listened in on Leesha’s thoughts. “Where does he want to be touched?”

“I’m not a psychic,” Leesha replied slightly flippant, but then caught himself. Uncle Stephen would be the last to play games with him, and he at least ought to look and try hard to see what he was supposed to find.

So he looked again, his eyes wandering over the naked body in front of him. Details came into focus, like the way Drew had dug his fingertips into the loose pebbles around him, or the way he breathed through his mouth, slightly opened, like a moan waiting to happen. The way he arched his back, presenting his chest and collarbone as if offering a present.

Slowly, Leesha reached out and touched Drew, gently stroking along the other novice’s collarbone. Drew shivered at the touch, and took in a deep, pleasure-filled breath.

“Good,” Stephen commented, now so softly he was almost whispering. “Can you see his aura now?”

“You serious?” Leesha asked, more surprised than mocking. “You mean, I could theoretically?”

“Stop being so complicated.” Stephen replied. “Can you now?”

“No.” Leesha replied truthfully. Probably, this would once again remain a little trick he just was cut out to comprehend.

“Then fake it.” Stephen’s suggestion sounded weird, but none the less he seemed serious. “Just pretend you could, imagine how it would look like to yourself, and then act as if you actually believed it.”

With a sigh, Leesha looked down to Drew again. Of course he had a rough idea of where there was tension in the other novice’s body, where Drew currently put his attention and where he didn’t. But that was far from seeing little, colourful lights floating around his body.

But Uncle Stephen wanted him to fake it, so Leesha started making up image for what he could guess. If he could see auras, he was sure he would see a deep, red glow around Drew’s cock and balls, flowing inwards. Golden sparkles along his collarbones and neck, with fine, glowing lines running along his skin. His solar plexus a star of orange energy, reaching around his torso to his back.

But just as Leesha started to concentrate on Drew’s head, wondering what colour would best represent his state of lustful relaxation, he realized that there was a softly radiant green light glowing around him already. An image Leesha surely hadn’t put there, for sure.

Leesha looked up at his uncle, only to find Stephen smile at him with plain insolence.

“See?” Stephen whispered proudly. “Told you, you could do it.”

“But… It’s not me doing all this.” Leesha corrected. “It’s just your talent boosting me, and it’ll be gone as soon as we stop touching.”

Now smiling even wider, Stephen raised both his hands. He had let go of Leesha’s hand as soon as the young noble was concentrating on Drew.

For a long moment, Leesha stared at Stephen, for once utterly at a lack of words. He looked back down at Drew, realizing that his aura was still there, real, and revealing more and more details the longer Leesha looked. Like that little itch that build right below Drew’s balls, just a little urge to be touched, to feel, to sense.

Fascinated by these new possibilities, Leesha touched Drew again, cupping his balls, just tight enough to complement the energy he could see building up there. Drew half-suppressed moan was an unusual, but very gratifying reward.

“I think you’re getting the hang of it all by yourself now,” Stephen said softly, smiling. “I’ll leave you two to it now, have fun!”

Carefully making sure not to disturb Drew, the Archbishop of Terra rose and straightened his trousers.

“Go, play with him,” he encouraged Leesha. “But don’t let him stew too long. It’s supposed to be fun, not torture.”

Leesha nodded, looking back at Drew who, for once, had his eyes opened and looked from Father Stephen to Leesha and back again with a half-suppressed, but very naughty smirk on his face. It seemed that Drew also was very much approving of Leesha’s sudden progress.

“Oh, and I’ll take the crayfish with me,” Stephen added as he left through the shallow river. “So you two can play as long as you want. Just don’t expect us to wait for you with dinner.”

Looking down at Drew, Leesha was sure they would not go back any time soon.

Food could wait. There were other pleasures to explore tonight.


End file.
